ABSTRACT

The Illinois Junior Academy of Science

This form/paper may not be taken without IJAS authorization.

CATEGORY

Botany

STATEREGION#

SCHOOL

Niles North High School

Skokie, 60077
Richard Thielsen

IJAS SCHOOL#

6038

SCHOOLPHONE#

847-626-2258

CITY/ZIP
SPONSOR

MARK ONE: EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION

NAME OF SCIENTIST*

AjmalAhmed

DESIGN INVESTIGATION
GRADE

NAME OF SCIENTIST

GRADE

NAME OF SCIENTIST

GRADE

11

NAME OF SCIENTIST GRADE

* If this project is awarded a monetary prize, the check will be written in this scientist's name, and it will be his/her responsibility to
distribute the prize money equally among all participating scientists.

PROJECT TITLE

Increasing Plant Efficiency by Sealing the Stomata for Extraterrestrial Growth

Purpose:

The purpose of my project is to observe the most efficient way to grow plants on Mars that is most
suitable for its environment and available resources.
Procedure:

Three pothos goldens are to be set in 3 separate vials in 50 mL, containing different concentrations of sucrose
solutions. To make each solution mix sugar with heated water. Next, add solutions to each vial and apply a
stopper. Observe average width of stomata, leaf pigment, and strength of plants over time. Repeat trials 3-5 times
for accuracy, this will determine the results.

Conclusion:

From this experiment, the plants overall given distilled water was healthier than plants given the sucrose
solution. The sucrose solution did narrow the stomata and decrease water intake, however, the known to be
durable household plant, pothos golden, was not able to stay healthy with restricted nutrients. If plants were to
be grown on Mars with sucrose solutions to decrease intake of water, it would not be a long term solution for
the limited water supply. To further my research, I would like to find new ways to manipulate plant functions
to try bettering them for environments that do not necessarily provide the best resources for plants to prosper.
My hypothesis agreed with the experiments results. The narrowing of stomata conserved the given fluid but
disallowed plants to receive nutrients through the process of reverse osmosis. Naturally water in plants are
consumed because the ratio of water to the plant is lower forcing the water to be taken in. The sucrose solution
interrupts this by forcing plants to do the opposite because there is a higher concentration of sucrose within the
plants forcing water to exit the plant. The closing of the stomata does not allow for gas exchange of carbon
dioxide to oxygen disallowing photosynthesis and cellular respiration that provide the plants their necessary
supplements. The plant will not create its own food due to the available sucrose, eventually starving itself.
From these results it is evident that to manipulate an aspect of the plant function it will decrease the overall

efficiency and slowly kill it.